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Frek And The Elixer by Rudy Rucker check out website: www.tor.com and www.rudyrucker.com
Just to make thing worse a friendly alien race decided to introduce themselves to him. This makes the local Gov suspicious and it sends out some counsellors to have a look inside Frek's head. He doesn't want to be peeked because his Dad was and he was never the same after. Dad can't protect him because he lit out to an asteroid settlement to get away from Gov.
It looks like it is up to Frek to take charge of his own destiny even though he is only a kid. What Frek would really like is to make the Earth how it used to be before most of the plants and animals were wiped out. He wants to make an elixir of all the lost species and bring it home. Meeting the alien may well make this possible. So just an average adventure for a lad in 3003. Save the world and home in time for tea. For company, Frek ends up with his talking dog Wow, a local mutant called Gibby and a rather nice young girl called Renata - well there has to be some compensation for all this responsibility. Along the way he discovers that the friendly aliens want to put the human race on a continuous satellite channel. It seems the rest of the universe is really interested in their everyday lives and a galactic 'Big Brother' would get very high ratings. Probably aimed at middle teens upwards, this outwardly simple tale deals with huge areas of theoretical physics. The author, Rudy Rucker, is a mathematician and computer scientist so I'm taking it for granted that he knows what he is talking about. There's lots of talk about brane-planes and bodies expanding to the size of the universe to travel across, all pretty logical really. Mainly though, it is a great story dealing with the difficulties of growing up, dealing with difference and making assumptions on appearance It considers freedom, manipulation and how to travel from A to B in the universe without a spaceship. It is smart and funny and moves at a good pace. It is also sad in places, looking at how a boy deals with being abandoned by a parent and the possibility of betrayal. Frek's relationship with Gibby as an unexpected ally and his friendship with Renata are dealt with in a sensitive and touching way. All in all, a well-rounded thoughtful piece that condenses huge concepts into a cracking story. Sue Davies
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OTHER REVIEWS - July 2004
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Frek
is having a really bad day. Not only has he got lots of homework
in his glypher slugs but his mum wants him to clean his room out.
There's no time to watch the wall toons and he misses his dad very
much. Life in Middleville 3003 is different to now but homework
and room tidying never change.
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